FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's proposed rural healthcare USF hike got majority support from Commissioners Brendan Carr and Mike O'Rielly. "The Rural Health Care program is running into a funding shortfall, ... creating uncertainty for participating providers and patients alike," Carr said Wednesday. He said Pai's draft order "would address the shortfall and provide longer-term certainty by adjusting the annual funding cap for inflation. This decision has my support, and I have voted to approve the item.” He said the extra funding would help increase access to telemedicine, including through a South Dakota skilled nursing facility he toured recently that uses broadband connections. O'Rielly also voted to approve the item, an aide told us Thursday. An FCC release trumpeted the majority in favor of the item and the backing of lawmakers and others. Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel's office is reviewing the item, an aide told us: "We expect to vote soon when our review is complete.” Pai said his draft order would immediately increase the RHC annual budget cap 43 percent to $571 million to reflect inflation since 1997, and going forward would index the program for inflation and allow unused funds from prior years to be carried forward to future years (see 1806060057). The chairman's plan will boost rural healthcare provider connectivity, even "more so in Alaska given the extreme conditions of distance and isolation" the state's rural communities face, Alaska Communications CEO Anand Vadapalli wrote Pai this week in docket 17-310.

CTIA is hosting a two-day meeting in Arlington, Virginia, which started Wednesday, looking at technical solutions for curbing contraband cellphones in prisons, industry officials said. Engineering professor Charles Clancy of Virginia Tech is leading the discussion, which includes vendors, officials said. The Association of State Correctional Administrators is working with CTIA on its efforts (see 1804270062). CTIA and ASCA didn’t comment Wednesday. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has expressed continuing concerns about the danger of contraband devices (see 1604060058).

PBS and America's Public Television Stations support improvements to the wireless emergency alert system that would allow delivery of multimedia content, but are concerned about increases to bandwidth requirements, they replied at the FCC in docket 15-91. Since public TV stations are using their spectrum to aid in public safety communications, they “must carefully guard bandwidth to ensure that these vital services remain available to communities and first responders,” APTS and PBS said. Multimedia content should be incorporated into WEA messages to “improve life-saving capability,” the National Weather Service said. Digital Broadcasting Technologies rejected arguments from CTIA (see 1806120043) that adding multimedia content would endanger the text portion of WEA alerts. Such alerts can be fully delivered using DBT's technology even if the packets in the messages are received out of order, DBT said. “The packets in DBT’s messages do not have to be received in sequential order, nor do they have to be contiguous.”

The FCC Public Safety Bureau sought broad comment on rules for ensuring the reliability of U.S. 911 networks, including notification to public safety answering points of network outages affecting service. When the FCC adopted its initial rules, “it committed to review them in five years to determine whether they remain technologically appropriate, and both adequate and necessary to ensure the reliability and resiliency of 911 networks,” Wednesday's public notice said. It asked for comments on "how effective these provisions have been in practice, and whether these provisions should be modified to adapt to advancements in technology or other changes." It said it will use the comments "to recommend next steps, if any, for the Commission’s consideration.” Comments are due July 16, replies Aug. 13, in docket 13-75.

The Senate Commerce Committee set a June 20 confirmation hearing for FCC nominee Geoffrey Starks, as expected (see 1806120047). President Donald Trump nominated Starks, Enforcement Bureau assistant chief, this month to succeed now-former Commissioner Mignon Clyburn for a term ending June 30, 2022 (see 1806010072). The panel will also include Consumer Product Safety Commission nominee Peter Feldman, Senate Commerce said at our deadline Wednesday. The hearing will begin at 10 a.m. in 253 Russell.

Microsoft responded to NAB’s complaint about the tech company's recent filing on TV white spaces (see 1806110027) that it agrees "this is a challenging issue to resolve and recognize[s] that the FCC has been looking into it since 2014. ... We look forward to working with the FCC, NAB, and others on a technical solution that will meet the needs of all parties.”

The legislation Harris Wiltshire attorney Kent Bressie referred to Monday, including in discussing a Team Telecom suggestion from FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly, was the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act (FIRRMA) (see 1806110045).

The FCC start for a fund for voice and broadband networks in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands after hurricanes that cut communications takes place Wednesday, says a notice to be published in that day's Federal Register. The Uniendo a Puerto Rico Fund will make available up to $750 million to carriers in Puerto Rico, and the Connect USVI Fund up to $204 million for such companies in the U.S. Virgin Islands, the notice says. Commissioners voted 4-1 May 8 to adopt an order and NPRM (see 1805290028).

FCC powers are restricted to a limited number of companies, with most in the internet economy not falling under commission jurisdiction, Commissioner Mike O’Rielly said in a speech Tuesday before the Philadelphia Federalist Society. What do Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Skype, Snapchat, Amazon, Netflix and Hulu “have in common?” he asked. “Is it that they are all in a perpetual hell trying to comply with the European" general data protection regulation, he asked. “Maybe.” But they also aren’t regulated by the FCC and there are only two ways to level the playing field, he said. “Either support greater deregulation of FCC regulatees that must compete with these services or advocate for new congressional powers to regulate these services, which would seem futile and unnecessary in a thriving market.”

NAB officials slammed a proposal by Microsoft asking that only TV white spaces (TVWS) devices operating on one or two designated “fast-polling” channels be required to query a white spaces database every 20 minutes to find out if these channels were still available. The company is seeking rules that would allow launching rural broadband using TVWS spectrum (see 1707100042). “This proposal assumes that TVWS devices will seldom operate on fast-polling channels because checking the database every 20 minutes would be disastrous for battery life of TVWS devices -- particularly portable devices,” NAB said Monday in docket 16-56. "The proposal is to establish fast polling channels that TVWS devices will then seek to avoid using.” NAB met with Chief Julius Knapp and others from the Office of Engineering and Technology. Meanwhile, OET approved an application by Nominet UK to be an administrator for the TV white spaces database. The company sought certification in November and OET sought comment in April (see 1804090043). The company told the FCC it has extensive TV white spaces experience in the U.K. It's "shown that it has the technical expertise to develop and operate a white space database,” OET said. Microsoft didn't comment.